Ordination Stories

Dr Bob....

Happy anniversary and may God continue to bless your ministry!!!!!

I remember the absolute awe and humility I felt when the Ordination council laid their hands on me.......How God could take someone like me and turn him into the pastor of a church......Well, only God could do that!

 

I took a small pioneer work and the fellowship it was with told me after arriving on the field that I would need to be ordained.

It was my home church pastor that informed me. I related that I believed ordination was to be done by the local church not a group of invited people that had not idea what kind of person I was or what kind of life I had lead.

The pastor seemed to agree with me but knew that wouldn't be well received by the fellowship but agreed to see what could be done.

He called in a few days and told me that he had brought it up at a pastors get together and the man that was kind of the unofficial leader of the group thought for a moment and said, "Well that seems Scriptural to me, why don't we go ahead." It was decided to do so.

A friend that was headed to the mission field also desired ordination, but felt the same way as I did so had not sought ordination. He found out about the fellowship's decision so asked if he could join in.

We submitted a doctrinal statement to our church pastor/assist and elders, met with them a week or two later to talk.

They had watched us grow up spiritually and felt we were worthy. They held two separate services and the church leadership ordained us.

These were the men that were over us as we matured so they knew quite well what we were like.

Worked well for all involved and our ordination service was not scheduled until we were approved.

 

Seeing how you turned out, most of those signers probably have deep regrets. I guess I was there too, not sure what got into me.
Congratulations, brother...

 

Well, I guess my name can be added to the list since last Sunday Night I was Ordained. I am so glad it was over. The questioning and examination wasn't as bad as I thought, but still, I felt like I was stripped mentally and intellectually (LOL). To God be the Glory. I just want God to continue to use me the way he sees fit.

 

The only ordination story I know is pretty freaky.

See, when I was probably about 10, someone mentioned that an old family friend was being ordained. I had no idea what that meant, and didn't bother asking.

That night I had a horrible dream.

 

Today is the 35th anniversary of my being licensed to the gospel ministry by my home church, due to the fact that that summer (1970) I was preparing to take a summer pastorate between college and seminary in the great state of Wyoming.

This summer will be be the 30th anniversary of my ordination. Dr. Cedarholm came to preach my ordination sermon in a white suit, white, shirt, white tie, white shoes. Someone made the comment that he looked like Col. Sanders. It was a great day.

 

Ordination was an experience. I was ordained as an associate pastor about a month before I left to go plant the church I serve now. My Sr pastor and I agreed on about 95% of everything, but there was one point we had a pretty serious disagreement over, and since he was head of the questioning counsel, he turned it into an argument. That was kinda irritating. But over all it was a very postitive thing, with several men present that I look up to. Like Dr. Bob, it's an awesome thing to look at that certificate with the names of some incredible men of God testifying that they saw God's hand on my life. Cool stuff.

Not to hijack the thread, but what was way wilder than ordination was the assessment by the North American Mission Board when we were in the process of planting the church. That was a half day ordeal for me, and every bit as much an ordeal for my wife. (she was there for the ordination, but they tossed her softballs. Not so with NAMB) I'd love to hear some other stories about assessment as well as ordination.

 

About 20 years ago, as a young adult, I went to the ordination service of a friend of mine with whom I had worked in a special ministry. He had just taken his first job as a pastor. He had 2 young sons, and the oldest one was 4 or 5 and his wife took him into the small church for that service. He got bored, expectedly I suppose, and was making noises. At the time of questioning by the "ordaining council," one man asked the ordainee how a person becomes "unsaved" after being saved. Right at that point his son said, loudly enough for everyone to hear, "I hate church!" There was no laughing until my friend quickly answerd, "That's not it."

 

A few years ago when I was still in highschool, I was already feeling God calling me to preach. I was attending a church that had recently been planted, and the pastor was being ordained. Before the vote to ordain him, he preached a message. Then when the head of the ordination council got up to speak, and looked right over at me and said, "Young man, has God called you to be a preacher?" See, at this point, I had only told a few of my friends, and there is no way he could have known. That moment will stick with me forever as an assurance from God that I was indeed called.

I look forward to the day when I will be ordained.

 

Well, I was ordained the same day that George W Bush was innaugurated President in 2001.

It was a cold snowy day and the church set on a little hill.. the service was to begin at 7:00pm, but I got to the church by 3:00 to keep the drive way cleared so the council could get up the hill..

At around 5:00 I realized that although, I had brought a suit to change into, i forgot my dress shoes.. SO I went home, roads snowy and icy to retrieve my shoes!

I got back in time, and had a wonderful experience.. Because of the way our association does ordinations.. we have to write a doctrinal paper ... there wasn't a lot of questions after I read my 17 page paper... I think most were asleep! lol

I still cherish, and always will, that piece of paper that shows that others back me. Others that are truly men of God.. one was even my parent's pastor when I was born..

I also cherish my doctrinal statement and keep it in a safe place. I want my great, great, great grandkids to know what I stand for.

 

You were ordained the day I came home with my first baby! (aaaw)

 

Dr. Bob, now that's not fair to make a post like that and expect folks like me to behave.

I COULD say...

-so THAT explains the weight gain on preachers.
-so can I have morphine during my ordination?
-we might hear, "Now, near the end of this thing, you might feel an intense desire to push."
-would it offend the ordination council if I did my lamaze breathing?
-can we look at our spiritual mentor, and with all the venom we can muster, say, "YOU did this to me!!!"

But, I won't say those things, because that would be bad, yessir.

 

That was great, thanks for the laugh

 

I am a little past 42 years since my ordination. It occasioned a bit of discussion, since after seminary I had accepted a call as a campus minister, not as the pastor of a church. My home church had generally always understood ordination to be for "preaching" -- i.e., pastoring. But my pastor led them to see that ordination was not so much about the specific function as it was about recognizing a life commitment to ministry.

Like others who have posted, I look occasionally at the certificate (standard-issue Broadman Press!) and remember fondly those who signed it, all of whom but one have gone home by now. One was my father-in-law, a seminary professor. The one who is still living is also a seminary professor and is preaching today (3/12/06) as part of the centennial observances at my home church.

At the end of the service I was surprised and pleased to see my cousin, a Presbyterian minister, in the congregation, and asked him to offer the benediction. So I have a slightly ecumenical flavor to my ordination!

By the way, as during my campus ministry and then during my pastorate a number of people have responded to the call for ministry and have proceeded toward ordination under my tutelage, I have conducted ordination services by asking ALL of God's people who wished to do so to come lay on hands, not just those previously ordained. When you invite only the ordained ministers and deacons to lay on hands, you suggest something like apostolic succession; when you ask the whole people of God to lay on hands, you proclaim that it is the ecclesia that sets apart.

The only problem with that process, apart from the fact that it can take a long time, is that I find that most lay people are squeamish about actually laying hands on the head of the ordinand. They hug, shake hands, put hands on shoulders, etc., rather than run their fingers through someone's hair!

 

Here is a story you all might get a kick out of. Years ago our church "withdrew fellowship" from a couple for sowing discord in the church, and a few other things. Years later I received a call from a pastor friend in a big city in MD. The call was about this disciplined fellow. It seems this fellow had contacted a church to ordain him. The pastor there knew my friend in MD. and asked him to be on the ordination council. My friend remembered the broken fellowship and called me to ask if I would be willing to sit in a meeting with the disciplined fellow and others to resolve the problem. I said I would. The day of the meeting the other fellow was given all the time he needed to "state his case" as to why he thought he was wrongly brought before our church years ago. For a whole hour I sat there while he went over page after page of notes of things he found wrong with both me and the Faith Baptist Church. I never said a word until he got to the part of telling about the time the church asked him to pray about becoming a deacon. He made the comment that the church voted on him but I had never laid my hands on him. At that instant I raised my hand and asked if they would allow me to lay my hands on him now. After a good laugh..(from most of the men there)..he angrily said "I wouldn't want to be ordained by you fellows any way" and left. I was preaching in a church a few years ago and this fellow was there LEADING the singing. When I was called up to preach ...he went home.